The Hon Ken Wyatt AM MP, Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Indigenous Health, has established a Hearing Health Sector Committee of representative stakeholders to progress the development of a Roadmap for Hearing Health. The Roadmap will set out future reform directions and priorities for the hearing sector that will lead to short, medium and long-term improvements in hearing health for all Australians.

The Committee will also include a representative of National Hearing Care.

At its first meeting, the Committee accepted the Terms of Reference proposed by the Minister (attached). The members also committed to consulting widely within their networks and to hosting a larger stakeholder forum in early September 2018 in order to consider a broad range of views and experiences.

The Committee commenced discussions on the organising principles for the Roadmap.

The Chair challenged the members to outline what hearing health in Australia would look like in 2025, and the potential ways of grouping issues and actions thematically into a series of domains.

The Department of Health is supporting the work of the Committee and will continue to work with the broader industry and consumer partners to develop the Roadmap for Hearing Health.

Hearing Health Sector Committee Terms of Reference

Purpose

The Hearing Health Sector Committee (the Committee) brings together key stakeholders in the hearing sector to develop a Roadmap that sets out future reform directions and priorities for hearing health in Australia.

Functions

The primary function of the Committee is to advise on the design and development of a Roadmap that will set out short, medium and long-term actions to address hearing health issues that have been identified.

The Committee will consider the recommendations made in a number of recent reports on hearing health in agreeing on the domains to explore further and include in the Roadmap.

In their deliberations the Committee should have regard to consumer choice, access, quality, financial sustainability and sector capacity.

In providing advice, the Committee members should ensure that the issues addressed are discussed within their networks to the fullest degree possible, where appropriate.

To facilitate this it is proposed that the Committee host a Roadmap stakeholder forum as an opportunity to involve a wider group to settle the domains for the Roadmap.

The Committee will report to the Minister for Aged Care (the Minister) through the Chair.

Working Groups

The Committee may establish Working Groups for each of the key domains. Their terms of reference will be agreed by the Committee Chair. Working Groups will report to the Committee.

External Support

The Committee and the Working Groups may be supported through the commissioning of external advice if required.

With the Government’s approval, membership of the Committee may be augmented by other ex officio members from time to time who have specific knowledge, expertise or experience to bring to the Committee deliberations.

With the Chair’s prior approval, individuals and organisations may be invited to participate in Committee discussions where they have particular knowledge, expertise or experience.

Timeframes

Membership will be through to 30 June 2019.

Frequency of Meetings and Deliverables

It is expected the Committee will meet four times in 2018 and up to twice in 2019 and will report to the Minister for Aged Care. Members may also undertake ongoing work on Working Groups for key domains.

It is likely that some decisions and consideration of issues will need to be made out of session by the Committee, including by teleconference or videoconference.

The Committee will prepare a report to the Minister on the outcomes of the Committee deliberations.

Secretariat

The Department of Health will provide the required level of secretariat support for the Chair, the Committee and Working Groups.

Performance and Reviews

The Department will undertake a review of the Committee, if required by the Minister.

Proposed by the Minister and accepted by the Committee on 25 July 2018.